OK I heard Paul say that Michael Jackson bought the rights to the entire Beatles catalog.

My question is how does Paul McCartney make money now if he doesn't own the rights to the music he wrote?

Is it just residuals from songs he wrote with Wings keeping him afloat?

I know it isn't any of my business but I was just curious how this kind of thing works as it sounds kinda odd that Sir Paul doesn't own the rights to ,when it comes right down to it, his music!

There's 2 ways to make money from songs you've written. Publishing which receives the "lions share" of the dough - now in MJ's hands. And, "mechanicals" (not as large, though in the case of Beatles tunes still fucking huge) which Paul still gets. Richard Groff will probably be able to explain it better than me. Plenty of literature on this subject as well.

touring and merchandise

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Originally posted by klasaine:
There's 2 ways to make money from songs you've written. Publishing which receives the "lions share" of the dough - now in MJ's hands. And, "mechanicals" (not as large, though in the case of Beatles tunes still fucking huge) which Paul still gets. Richard Groff will probably be able to explain it better than me. Plenty of literature on this subject as well.

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I'm sorry but this isn't exactly correct. "Mechanicals" are publishing royalties as are synchronization licensing royalties and performance royalties (paid by ASCAP, SESAC & BMI in the US from Radio/MTV/etc). All publishing royalties are divided 50/50 between the publisher and the songwriter(s), however most publishing deals nowadays are actually co-publishing or administration deals where the songwriters copyrights are administered for only a portion of the publisher's share with the artist retaining the publishing under a company owned by themselves. If an artist chooses to administrate their own publishing, they must create a publishing company (to get the publisher's portion of the money from organizations like ASCAP) and (hopefully) be versed in issuing mechanical licenses and expoiting their copyrights to film, tv etc or they simply won't make that much.

The Beatles were one of the very first performers to sing their own songs, so it was pretty easy to talk them into signing their publishing away rather than keeping control themselves (thanks Brian Epstein), which was the norm in the days when you needed someone to hawk your tunes to singers & A&R guys so they could get on record and generate some cash.

Publishers cannot receive the "lion's share" of the money because it isn't legal for the songwriter to receive less than 1/2 the money due. The only way the songwriter can be cut out of the deal is if they wrote the song under a "copyright buyout" which means that it is work for hire and owned only by the company paying for the work to be completed. I don't believe the Beatles has such an arrangement, however keep in mind that the publisher has the right to license music to films commercials etc without the ok from the writer, so some of the issue is control in this case (I think).

hope this helps...

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http://www.blackwaterexperiment.com

quote:

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Originally posted by klasaine:
There's 2 ways to make money from songs you've written. Publishing which receives the "lions share" of the dough - now in MJ's hands. And, "mechanicals" (not as large, though in the case of Beatles tunes still fucking huge) which Paul still gets. Richard Groff will probably be able to explain it better than me. Plenty of literature on this subject as well.

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Also... the mechanicals ARE most often the largest portion of the publishing royalty earning. It is the money paid for each copy of the song released (not necessarily sold) on record.

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http://www.blackwaterexperiment.com